Target:
the Central Avenue mosque that was raided in the early
August FBI sting. Photo by: Shannon DeCelle

First
They Came For . . .Ad
hoc group forms to take a stand against anti-Muslim profiling

On
the same day as the FBI sting that arrested two Albany Muslims
for allegedly agreeing to launder money for a fictitious assassination
attempt, a white man, William Nettles, was arrested in Chicago
with a large amount of fertilizer and charged in a plot to
blow up a federal courthouse. Though a much more tenuous case
that didn’t avert any actual planned harm, the Albany bust
caused a much bigger stir in the media.

This, said Erin O’Brien of Women Against War and one of the
organizers of a new ad hoc group called Solidarity Network,
is just one example of how bias against Muslims and Arabs
still pervades the country. Locally, she said, the sting (which
O’Brien, speaking for herself, not the group, said was clearly
entrapment) was only one of many instances of profiling, including
the deportation of Ansar Mahmood and the family that was interrogated
for praying in a mall parking lot.

The Solidarity Network, which includes Women Against War,
the Stand for Peace Antiracism Committee and Bethlehem Neighbors
for Peace, as well as individuals who are not affiliated with
any other organization, wants to “communicate to the general
public in the Capital District that there’s a pattern of racial
profiling and discrimination and we recognize it and we stand
against it,” said O’Brien, noting that that the country has
“done this before; we put Japanese Americans in concentration
camps. . . . We’re hoping [this time] people will stand up
and say no.”

Because the Muslim community feels so vulnerable, Solidarity
Network is moving more slowly and carefully than the peace
activists’ “standard things that we do in response to public
events” like rallies, said O’Brien. The group’s meetings are
closed to the media so that representatives of the Muslim
community feel safe there.

Current projects include getting officials and concerned citizens
to sign onto a broad statement of support and then taking
out a full-page ad in a local newspaper or maybe a billboard,
collecting donations for the families of the two men who were
arrested, and maybe helping with some repair work on the Central
Avenue mosque, which was damaged in the raid. The statement
reads, “We, residents of the Capital District, are deeply
troubled and concerned by patterns of profiling, stereotyping,
and discrimination against our Arab and Muslim neighbors.
We urge you to join us in assuring that religious freedom
is protected, that cultural diversity is cherished, that political
expression is encouraged, and that fear shall not divide us.”

O’Brien said it does not address the arrests specifically
because they want to keep the focus on the broader pattern
of profiling, but she did note that they want to communicate
that the men are “innocent until proven guilty” and that when
the government won’t make its evidence public, the case is
suspect.

Timelle Andrews, the civil rights director of the newly formed
Albany chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations,
has been working with Solidarity Network as part of her outreach
to civil liberties groups in general. She said the group “represents
what this country is all about: unity for all people.”

Andrews said that compared with the rest of the country, the
Capital Region has been “relatively fortunate” in that it
hasn’t seen much anti-Muslim or anti-Arab violence. She spends
most of her time doing education about the Muslim community,
overcoming traditional misconceptions like Muslim equals Arab.
Still, she noted, the FBI sting has “install[ed] a lot of
fear. Some people are afraid to come out to the masjid; they
are not sure if it’s still under surveillance. No one should
have to live with that kind of fear.”

“If
you don’t stand up for your neighbor, you could be next,”
noted O’Brien.

Say
Hello To The FedsFBI questions protestors, who say it's an attempt to stiffle
dissent

The FBI has been in town. After questioning protesters planning
to attend rallies at the two national political conventions,
the bureau has been fending off accusations by congressional
Democrats and the press that it was trying to suppress dissent.
Despite bureau claims that they only interviewed “Midwestern
anarchists,” at least one Capital Region activist was among
those contacted.

On Aug. 16, The New York Times revealed that agents
from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force had been interrogating
political demonstrators, and their families and friends as
well, around the country in an attempt to prevent disturbances
at the Republican National Convention in New York City this
week. In a few cases, the Times reported, the FBI had
even subpoenaed protesters to try to learn of possible disruptions,
and some activists said they had felt menaced by the bureau’s
tactics. The Times editorial page attacked the DOJ
in a scathing commentary the next day, saying, “The knock
on the door from government investigators asking about political
activities is the stuff of totalitarian regimes.”

Three House Judiciary Committee Democrats, Reps. John Conyers
of Michigan, Robert C. Scott of Virginia and Jerrold Nadler
of New York, called for an investigation of the FBI probe,
saying in an Aug. 17 letter to the Justice Department’s inspector
general that the FBI “appears to be engaged in systematic
political harassment and intimidation of legitimate anti-war
protesters.” But Attorney General John Ashcroft refused to
concede that the bureau had attempted to trample on free speech.
At a news conference on Aug. 20, he maintained that the JTTF
had only interviewed protesters in the Midwest whom they thought
were planning to firebomb media trucks at the Democratic convention
or might have known about such plans. The Associated Press,
however, reported that the people interviewed by the FBI told
the American Civil Liberties Union that the agents never asked
about a firebombing plot.

And a Capital Region antiwar protester evidently was contacted
by the FBI a few weeks ago. Speaking on the condition of anonymity,
the activist said she received a phone call from a man who
gave his name and identified himself as a federal agent. He
then asked her if she was going to New York City to demonstrate
this week, whom she was going with, and if she would be traveling
by bus. Declining to answer his questions, she told him she
would consent to an interview if a lawyer were present. At
that, the caller concluded the conversation. “These are scary
times we live in, and I think this an effort to intimidate
people from protesting,” she said.

Melanie Trimble, director of the Capital Region chapter of
the New York Civil Liberties Union, said no one has to talk
to the FBI unless they are arrested. She added that the NYCLU
is compiling a list of attorneys willing to act as witnesses
to FBI political questionings. (Anyone wishing such assistance
should call 436-8594.)

An FBI spokesman, Joe Parris, denied that the bureau was trying
to silence dissent. “The FBI is not interviewing protesters.
The FBI does not set about to stifle free speech or infringe
upon anyone’s First Amendment rights or freedom to protest.
We interviewed a small number of people who we had reason
to believe may have knowledge of planned criminal acts at
a number of designated national security events,” he said,
and explained that the events in question were the two national
political conventions, the presidential and vice-presidential
debates, and the November elections. Parris also asserted
that the number of interviewees was “under 25,” and added
that the agents had spoke to anarchists from “three Midwestern
states” who “might” be planning attacks with Molotov cocktails,
slingshots, or large-capacity water pistols filled with bleach
or urine. He would not comment when asked if the FBI had contacted
any protestors in the Albany area.

According to the Web site of the Democracy Now! radio
program, civil-rights groups have actually reported 40 to
50 cases of documented JTTF questionings, and The New York
Times reported on Aug. 17 that the interviews had occurred
in six states, including New York.

Lawrence Wittner, a professor of history at SUNY Albany who
studies mass protest movements and author of Toward Nuclear
Abolition, condemned the FBI’s tactics. “With the organizers
of the 9/11 attacks and of the subsequent anthrax attacks
still on the loose, it’s astonishing that the FBI is spending
its time harassing peaceful protesters,” he commented. Paul
Tick, a leader of Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace, agreed, saying,
“It is sad that we go to Iraq supposedly to bring the people
their liberty while here at home, we suppress it. I wonder
what George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine and John
Adams would say about the Bush administration’s attempts to
erode the rights they fought for.”

—Glenn
Weiser

Women
(and Supporters) for Kerry

(l-r)
Lynn Mahoney, chair of the Rensselaer County Democratic
Committee; JoAnn Smith, president of the board
of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund; Mike Breslin,
Albany County executive; Lucille McKnight, Albany
County legislator; Shawn Morris, Albany Ward 6
councilwoman; Ginny O’Brien, deputy minority leader
of the Rensselaer County Legislature; Pat McGeown;
and Kathleen Garrison, president, CSEA Region
4, gathered on the 84th anniversary of women’s
suffrage (last Thursday, Aug. 26) to announce
the formation of Capital Region Women for Kerry.
They chose Academy Park, because it was “in the
shadow of” the Elk Street residence that served
as the headquarters for the state’s anti-suffrage
movement. Speakers said that voter turnout must
be raised among young women. Members of Albany
and Columbia counties’ Young Democrats set out
on a voter-registration drive after the press
conference.